There is a need in the electronic equipment industry for means for making convenient and secure electrical connections to sets of small side-by-side terminal pads, such as the terminal pads of a printed circuit board or a liquid crystal display. A promising technique for making such connections is taught in laid-open United Kingdom patent application No. 2,048,582A, published on Dec. 10, 1980, which teaches an adhesive connector tape comprising a flexible insulative sheet, a plurality of parallel, separated, electrically conductive stripes carried on the sheet, and an electrically conductive adhesive covering the conductive stripes. Electrical connections can be made by adhering an end of the tape against a set of terminal pads, with individual stripes on the tape in alignment with individual pads.
For satisfactory use of sheet material as described, the electrically conductive adhesive in the sheet material must achieve a low-resistance bond that is stable for the length of time and under the operating conditions that are expected for the sheet material. Conventional coatings of electrically conductive adhesives in prior electrically conductive tapes, which for example use a metal foil backing, have not always provided the needed degree of stability and low resistance. Initial resistance is too high and/or resistance increases during use, to the extent that mechanical clamping techniques are often used to supplement the adhesive bond.